Remarks by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis at the informal ECOFIN press conference
Thank you João, good afternoon everyone.
As the Minister already said, Europe's economic outlook remains very uncertain. However, the Commission expects a recovery to take hold during the second half of this year.
As regards fiscal policy, we will need to continue to support the economy this year and next. National policies need to remain agile.
Also, Member States should make good use of the substantial economic impulse that will come from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, without causing additional deficits and debt.
The Commission presented the main points of our communication on the fiscal policy response to ministers today and it was met with their broad support.
This guidance should be reflected in the Stability and Convergence Programmes and will facilitate a continued strong coordination of our fiscal policies in the period ahead.
We also proposed an approach to determine whether to continue or deactivate the general escape clause in the Stability and Growth Pact.
This decision should depend on the overall assessment of the state of the economy – and the key criteria whether economic output has regained its pre-crisis level of 2019.
So far, based on the Commission's Winter Forecast, the general escape clause looks sets to remain active in 2022 but no longer so as of 2023.
We will take the final decision in spring.
Now moving to the RRF: ministers discussed the state of play with the national recovery and resilience plans, which Member States are continuing to work hard to draft.
The Commission already has a fairly clear view of what the vast majority of countries intend to include.
But there is a lot of work to do. That includes getting the right balance between reforms and investments and translating them into milestones and targets to guide disbursements.
This task should not be underestimated.
Discussions will continue with each country at full speed in the coming weeks and in line with the country-specific recommendations.
On digitalisation, ministers supported the Commission's retail payments strategy, in particular the roll-out of instant payments and development of pan-European payment systems.
This will make our retail payments market competitive and innovative. We will soon launch a public consultation with a view to promoting the uptake of instant payments.
As our economies turn progressively digital, we want to make it easier for consumers to pay in shops everywhere and make e-commerce transactions widely available, safe and convenient.
Lastly, on digital taxation:
We still need a global agreement on reforming the institutional system at the level of the OECD and G20.
So we welcome the change of position by the new U.S. administration and remain confident of reaching a consensus by mid-2021.
In parallel, as mandated by the European Council, we are continuing preparations for proposing an EU digital levy, to serve as an EU own resource by 2023. We will ensure that this will complement the OECD process and be WTO-compatible.
The crisis makes it even more important to agree on the taxation of digital businesses and other issues such a minimum tax rate.
This is both in order to secure much-needed tax revenues and to make sure that everyone pays their fair share of tax.
Thank you.